Ruling the roti

Despite knowing his way around the kitchen, Delhiite Rajinder Narang had never tried his hand at making rotis. In this short and sweet piece, he writes how his daughter encouraged him to take it up and cross the final barrier!  

Photo courtesy: Anamika Sharma

Twenty-seven years ago, while travelling from Chennai to Delhi by Tamil Nadu Express with my family after a week’s holiday in Ooty, I met a Tamilian travelling to Delhi with his family after visiting his relatives for over a month. Both of us were looking forward to reaching Delhi and the reason was the same: we were missing rotis!

The love for roti is such that you can eat any amount of rice or bread but you are not satisfied till you have eaten rotis. The only fast food joint worth a mention in my book is Nirula’s in Delhi, which gave us the first taste of burgers and pizzas, but was successful only because it also served rotis, to appeal to people of all age groups and tastes.

I learnt to cook in my youth, at first just to help my mother when all my five sisters got married one by one and left home. That was just basic cooking: making egg, toast, and tea. My love for tea, and my getting married to a girl who was not fond of tea, meant that I am making my cup of tea everyday till date. The only change is that instead of Darjeeling tea brewed in a tea pot for 5 minutes and served with very little milk, now the tea is made in an electric kettle with a tea bag in the cup.

Coming back to rotis, ever since our daughters got married, my wife visits them for a week or two. Initially she used to cook vegetables and leave them in the fridge for me. I used to heat them and eat them with bread. Then I learnt to make a few vegetables, and she started making few parathas and leaving them in the freezer. I took out two at a time, heated them, and ate them with the vegetable I made.

This time, my wife had gone initially for 15 days. She had made around 50 parathas and everything was going fine till she announced that she is going to extend her stay for another 15 days. My parathas were getting over, so she suggested I get some more made by the maid. For a person who likes to peel, chop and cook vegetables himself, it was not an agreeable proposition. Then my elder daughter, who is in Amsterdam, said, Dad why don’t you cross the final barrier and learn to make rotis yourself? She sent me a YouTube video on how to make rotis, and warned me not to try making them for the first time when I was very hungry. She also advised that I apply a good amount of dry flour to the dough so that it does not stick to the roller or the base.

So I tried and was successful, and now that I have been making rotis for the last 3 days, my roti-making skill is getting better day by day. I must thank my wife for giving me an opportunity to learn, and my daughters for encouraging me to cross the final barrier.

Do you wish to cross the final barrier like Mr Narang and add roti making to your kitchen skills? Anamika Sharma of popular food blog Madcookingfusions shows you how here. Enjoy ?